College Station City Map Poster

About College Station

The area that would become College Station was originally home to the Karankawa and Tonkawa tribes, who were gradually displaced by European settlers. In 1876, George Washington Littlefield donated to the Texas A&M Board of Regents for a new agricultural college in East Texas. The 8th president of the university, Lt. Col James Harvey Cushing (1858–1940), persuaded Congress to pass legislation changing the name of VMI from Virginia Military Institute to "Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College" (VAMC) on March 2, 1879; however both institutions have since been known as "Virginia Tech". In 1890, 3/4ths of a mile () east of what is now Interstate 45 stood four buildings: Patteson Hall (no longer standing), Main Building (A&M Consolidated Library today) facing Northgate Avenue , an unnamed building known today as Old Chemistry still facing Northgate Avenue , and Hays Hall facing Tully Road .